A/N: So I was told to make the chapters longer so I tried as hard as I could! ^-^ Hope it's somewhat better! I'm not a huge fan over how Conqueror of Shambala ended, so I changed it up, we'll pretend Ed found the underground city but went back to get Al and they got a Philosopher Stone somehow and he got Al back and not himself (and they never went to the ballroom with Rose). KAY!

What Lies Ahead

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Edward found himself in the underground town that he had found beneath Amestris' Central City. It was dark, but some of the cracks in the walls let in streams of light. The buildings on the egde of the underground dome were tilted to side from the rising walls. Edward stared in a daze at the walls, but snapped out of the trance and looked around for his brother. There was a naked body that was lying in the middle of a transmutation circle. The body was thin, thin enough that you could see each individual rib, and it had blonde-brown hair flowing down behind its head. Ed crawled over to the body and lifted it in his arms. It was most definitely Alphonse Elric; the body looked too much like Al to not be him.

"Al." No reply, "Alphonse, come on wake up, please." Still no reply came, "ALPHONE ELRIC IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP RIGHT NOW, I-I'LL—"Edward was cut short by two things; one: he didn't know what he would do, and two: there was a short throaty grunt. "Shut up, Brother, I'm trying to sleep." Al's eyes open to stare at a wide eyed Edward, "Brother, why is it so cold?" Edward stifled a chuckle as Alphonse looked downward.

A blush spread across his cheeks as he coughed a notice for Edward to tell him to do something. "Oh, uh—" Edward looked for words as he still tried to hide his laughing, he finally straitened himself out and spoke, "I don't know where my jacket is Al, so I don't know what to give you to cover up." Al looked strangely at Edward then down at his own body and smiled, "We did it," Al's smile faded, "mostly." He then looked at Ed's automail arm.

Edward looked down at his brother and found tears sprout in Al's eyes, "Ah, Al, it's okay, it doesn't matt—"Ed was stopped in his sentence by Al, "IT DOES!" Edward's eyes opened widely, looking at Al's face, it was red with trails of water that tears left behind. Al lowered his head hopping his bangs hid his face, they didn't work well, "Sorry." It might've been a mere whisper but Ed knew that Al was speaking threw his teeth, and with many emotions; anger, sadness, hurt, discomfort, disgust, grief, remorse.

These were all seen on his face. Edward gaped at his brother, the last time he saw him this angry, sad, and depressed was—well he couldn't remember anything this bad. "Can you move at all, Al?" Edward waited for a reply, nothing came. Getting annoyed, he started to talk quieter than before to hide his aggravation, it didn't hide anything, "Just nod a god damned yes or no, Al." Al nodded once, and Ed sighed gratefully, for both the response and that Al could move. "Could you move what you can?" Another nod.

Al moved his arms, his toes, and he tilted his head back to see his brother. "I'm—" Al started, "—I'm sorry, Brother" Edward maneuvered himself and Al so that he could carry Al in his arms, without digging his automail into Al's back, and so that Al could sleep if he wanted to do so. "Brother, what am I going to cover myself with?" Al looked away from Edward's face when he asked this as well as putting his hands over his groin to hide what he could. Edward chuckled and shrugged, "I'll think of what I can do, alright?" Al groaned and interjected, "Why can't you give me your shirt?"

"Well, god damn excuse me for getting your body recovered, Sir Elric." Edward put on a sarcastic tone while putting on a fancy-shmancy one, too. Edward walked over to one of the buildings and set Al on a ledge, then pulled off his shirt and pushed it in Alphonse's face. "I can't cover my with that, cut it or make it longer or something, Brother." Al requested. Edward's nose scrunched up in disgust with how demanding his brother was but transmuted it into a longer cloth and handing it to Al, then stalked into the building they were in front of to look for water or food.

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Al wrapped the cloth around his waist before tucking a corner just above his right hip, then called out to his brother, "What are you doing, Brother?" For a minute or so there was no response then Edward ducked out of the abandoned building with a couple of glasses of water and some bread and other food. "I went to look for food and found water on the ground and some perspiration on the counters so I boiled them to remove any bacteria and crap from the water, chilled it, transmuted the windows' glass into cups, and found some stale bread and other edible foods." Ed shrugged and walked over to Al, setting everything down, "Eat up."

Al looked at Edward for a little while before setting half of everything closer to Edward and began eating, through bite Al stated, "You," munch, munch, munch, "eat, too." Nom, nom, nom "M'kay?" Edward shook his head in disagreement and set all but one glass of water, two pieces of bread, and one of everything else near Al again. Then he pointed to Al's stomach and said, "I don't look like I'm dying of hunger, Al."

They both laughed a little then set to eating their portions, Alphonse hurrying eating all that he could before chugging down all seven or so glasses of water he had, as Edward took his time trying to finish when Alphonse would. When they finished Edward picked Alphonse up in his arms again and walked to what he saw as a staircase. Pain shot through Edwards's right arm and left leg, "What in the name of Hell?" This was said through his teeth, muffling his words so that it sounded as if he was saying 'fwat in tha nem of hep'.

Edward ignored it and headed up the staircase, since Alphonse was tremendously light it wasn't as hard. Al chatted Ed's head off about what he would be able to do now, he could swim, eat, drink, feel, and sleep. But there would be an awkward silence everytime Al caught a glance of Edward's automail and settled with a 'so sorry'. By the time they reached the top of the staircase Edward was hacking up dry air, but didn't stop, they exited the city's opening without looking back. They headed down the tunnel that led to the exiting of the whole underground city, but something stood in their way. A rock? A door? Edward didn't care he just set Alphonse gently on the ground before he pushed against the object that stood in his way.

When it wouldn't budge Ed resorted to using alchemy to break what it was into tiny pieces. The shock wave of pain swept over his right shoulder and left leg again just before Edward clapped his hands together. Ed hissed loudly at the pain, it was as bad as when Winry and Pinako attached hi verves to the automail. His right hand jerked and stalled before it moved again and collided with his left hand, he pressed his hands against the object and a bright blue light lit the tunnel for a couple of seconds. What replace the blue light was a bright yellow light from the sun outside.

Ed went and heaved Alphonse in his arm before exiting the now lit tunnel.

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A/N: Sooooooooo—how was it?! I had fun righting it, it took a while to figure out what Ed should do, or Al should say, so I resorted to a fight! R&R!